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Saturday, January 31, 2015

The Bumps In Our Journey!

One fine evening, I find my house rather laid
back and unusually quiet. I rang the second bell and the door opened with a
whiff of air that smelt of spiced rajma. Now to give you an idea of why I find
this setting ‘unusual’ is that I have a twelve turning thirteen year old
Sister!

Pari had opened the door and didn’t even say “Hi”
and turned back and ran into our room. Now that was the ‘nail in the coffin’
sign that something was not right! I was on my way to the room when I found a
piece of paper half-folded, lying near the bin.

I picked it up and read the contents of the
letter-

Why don’t you go away

Let me live my life, my way!

When you are around

My life is dark and blurry

Please leave, please hurry!

My best friend can’t look at me

As if she’s ashamed of my presence

Others run away as I come to them

As if I’m a ghost without a name!

No one will love me it seems

If you are around me

So please dear go away

And let my Didibhai kiss my cheek!

I was beyond shocked! I didn’t know what to
speculate upon- whether how she managed to pen down this nice little piece of
poetry or the subject of this poem! What was it that had made her so upset?
Could it be a boy? Could it be something to do with school? Friends?

My mind flummoxed my sanity and I decided to
confront her instead of going on webbing my doubts!

Me: Pari baby, what’s wrong? Are you upset? [
She hid her face with a pillow and answered from beneath the pillow.]

Pari: Yeeeaaaa

Me: Won’t you share your pain with me Baby? We
are best friends no? [ I was seriously worried by now!]

Pari was silent for a minute. Then slowly, she
removed the pillow from her face and sat down upright! She had a pimple! A
biiiiig one on her nose! And she looked so anxious!

I was puzzled for a moment! But then I made sense
of that letter and all the anxiousness and burst out laughing! I know … I know..
it was mean and I perhaps should have been more understanding but then pimple
wasn’t a big issue for me! I’ve always been a “pamper my skin” person! I’m
addicted to my cleansing rituals and beauty essentials. My sister on the other
hand has been maintaining a one-hand distance from all creams and cleansing so
far! And thus, the resultant PIMPLE of a problem!

I finally got a grip on myself and sat beside
her. By then, she’d started fuming and if this was a movie, she’d have smoke
out of her ears, I’m sure! So I took upon the role of the big sister and made
her understand the importance of a proper cleansing ritual followed by
moisturising. She seemed to take me a lot more seriously and I think she
sincerely made a mental note of the same!

That night I let her use my Garnier Pure NeemFace-wash and she had read about the importance of neem in cleansing both
externally as well as internally and she understood the relevance of the
product. She also further applied moisturizer though she cringed her face!

Life teaches us many lessons, either by others’
experience or by our own. However, it is
important to learn from that experience and grow! Thanks to this experience, I
am sure my sister has learned the value of following beauty rituals, not just
to look beautiful but to feel beautiful!

We often take our skin, our body for granted.
But then we stumble upon a bump or two to make us believe in ourselves again!